Five Things to Know for Your New Day – Friday, December 12

A few more days: Congress narrowly averted a government shutdown that was to take effect at midnight. The House approved a $1.1 trillion spending bill, and the Senate will get a two-day extension of current funding levels to give itself time to approve the House bill.

FEDS SEIZE T-REX

Paleontologist predicament: Imagine spending your entire career searching for something buried somewhere within the Earth – and then the federal government seizes your discovery when you find it. That’s the predicament paleontologist Peter Larson found himself in after he and his team unearthed a nearly complete Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton in 1990, preserved for some 67 million years in what is now the state of South Dakota.

FIERCE STORM

West Coast hit: A massive storm whacked California and Oregon, killing at least one man and knocking out power in urban areas. Phillip Crosby died when a tree fell on his tent in south Oregon.